This invention relates to a system for scoring test papers in an educational environment, and more particularly to a portable computerized test scoring system and method which permits each student to automatically download his or her answers to true/false or multiple choice examination questions from a remote unit to a centralized scoring computer, whereupon the examination will be instantaneously graded and the results downloaded to the student's remote unit.
There is a thrust in industry, due to environmental concerns, to reduce the amount of paper consumed and wasted throughout the world. This creates a need to transfer as much information as possible using paperless systems. One area in which such an approach is important is in the educational market, wherein the number of test papers required by colleges and universities is very large. Additionally, there is a long-felt need for a modernized system of testing wherein a student may take the test in a manner which ensures accurate, reliable, and instantaneous scoring, to thereby provide immediate feedback concerning his or her progress and which will minimize the chance for errors in recording and transferring the answers between the student and the teacher. Moreover, methods of testing which reduce the opportunity for cheating to occur are always desirable.
An electronic test scoring system and method using a remote answer recording unit which is operated by the student is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,379,213 to Derks. In the disclosed system, a scoring processor is provided which is operated by the teacher. Additionally, a plurality of answer recording units are provided, for the students who are taking a particular examination. The student records his or her answers to each examination question, by stroking particular keys on the keypad of the answer recording unit assigned to that student, after which the answer recording unit is placed in proximity with a docking station. The teacher or proctor then strokes a scoring key associated with the scoring processor, which causes the scoring processor to produce a pulse which activates an antenna on the scoring processor. The signal from this antenna activates the answer recording unit to transmit the inputted answers for the examination questions to the scoring processor, whereupon the instructor or proctor engages a clear signal whereby the scoring processor transmits a clear signal to the answer recording unit, so that the answer recording unit clears its memory.
The problem with this prior art system is its extreme complexity, and consequent cost disadvantage, which renders it impractical for use by most students and schools operating on very limited budgets. The system, for example, employs complex specially tuned inductive antennas for transmitting data, as well as oscillators and amplifiers, which are expensive and require an expensive and complex docking station between the answer recording unit and the scoring processor. Furthermore, the prior art system does not provide immediate feedback to the student, by providing the examination results. Structurally, the system requires a physically substantial impervious wall for the answer recording unit, which increases cost and weight of the system. Additionally, the assistance of the instructor or proctor is mandatory in order to download the inputted answers from the answer recording unit to the scoring processor.
What is needed, therefore, is an automated paperless examination scoring system comprising remote scoring (answer recording) units which are relatively inexpensive, easy to use, permanently identified with a particular student, and which employ cheat-resistant displays, to minimize fraud. The system should also be operable to provide the student with instantaneous test results.